<$BlogRSDUrl$> Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Internet Happenings, Events and Sources


Wednesday, February 11, 2004  

Tinkering with the Tyranny of Copyright
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/25/magazine/25COPYRIGHT.html

William Fisher, director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, has turned his attention to solving the seemingly intractable conflict between the recording industry and file-sharing music fans. His proposed plan, which would enable the entertainment industry to restructure its business model without resorting to micropayments, could also have ramifications for copyrighted digital text-based content. As a first step, all works capable of being transmitted online would be registered with a central office, which would then monitor how frequently the work is used. The work's creator would be compensated on that basis using funds collected via a tax on various content-related devices, such as DVDs, blank CDs or digital recorders. Fisher agrees that such a radical overhaul of the current system would be difficult in today's tax-phobic political environment, but he says that his ideas have been received with great interest by the music and home video industries whose business models are under siege. Fisher says that the likeliest locale for putting his ambitious scheme to work would be in countries such as Croatia or Brazil, which are neither so developed that they have signed on to international copyright protocols nor so underdeveloped that they are desperate to do so. "The hope is in the rainforest," says Fisher, in countries that "are more like the United States was before 1890, when we were a 'pirate' nation." As to whether such a system would ever work in the U.S., Fisher says perhaps after the various current schemes fail, his approach will be more attractive: "What is involved here is nothing less than the shape of our culture and the way we think of ourselves as citizens."

posted by Marcus Zillman | 4:00 AM
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